Alma Louise Visscher (she/her) is a white settler living and working in amiskwacîwâskahikan, Treaty 6 Territory. She creates fabric-based installations, soft sculptures, and drawings that consider the material culture and the parameters of abstraction through a feminist lens. Her work has been shown throughout North America, as well in Iceland and Germany: Sweet Lorraine Gallery (Brooklyn), Kimura Gallery (Alaska), and included in the 2020 Canadian Biennial of Fibre Art (Idea Exchange, Cambridge ON) as well as in Future Station, the 2015 Biennial of Alberta Art (Art Gallery of Alberta). She is a recipient of the 2020 Edmonton Artist Trust Award and is thankful for the support from Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Edmonton Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
As both artist, teacher, cultural worker, and friend Alma has focused on supporting more accessible art programs, and with those using art as part of their mental health and wellness journey: She has worked with a wide variety of government agencies and non-profit organizations: teaching classes and leading workshops at day programs, continuing care centres, and with employment and youth support services. Currently, she is a Sessional Instructor at MacEwan University.
Artist Statement
My work connects to the history of abstract painting and ponders the inexplicable, yet also containing fragments of what we touch on a daily basis, of the every day, the utilitarian, and the wearable. Working primarily with, through, and on fabric, I create soft sculptural paintings, fabric-based installations, and watercolours of fabric-like forms. Through both process and materials, I strive to embrace change, to be responsive to specific places and where I am located, and to incorporate flexible systems of learning and making. I am curious to explore the intersection of material and the unknowable, the ecology of places, and the things that hold us, care for us, and comfort us. These motivations have led me to explore materials such as working with natural dyes inks sourced from my immediate environments and repurposed textiles and materials. These choices are also informed by the idea of material thinking (listening/working/learning in relationship with materials) and considerations of how human (and beyond human) beings are interconnected with material.
CONTACT: alma.visscher@gmail.com
Collaboration w/THK alv.thk@gmail.com
